GRNC

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Asheville Gun Show!

July 7, 2023 by

If you live in western North Carolina or are visiting the area this weekend, stop by the Asheville Gun Show. It is being held Saturday and Sunday in the Davis Event Center at the WNC Ag Center. For those attending from out of town, it is at the corner of Fanning Bridge Road and Airport Road in Fletcher just across from the Asheville Regional Airport.

It open at 9am on Saturday and runs until 5pm. On Sunday, it opens at 10am and runs until 4pm. If you got to the promoter’s website, you can get a coupon for $1 off the $10 admission. With 400 tables, it is one of the larger gun shows in the region.

If you do come to the show, stop by the Grass Roots North Carolina booth and say hello. I should be there most of the weekend. We will be in a new location that should give us more visibility.

More importantly, if you are not a member, take advantage of the gun show discount and join! We are still pushing hard on getting HB 189 – Freedom to Carry NC – through this session of the General Assembly. With enough pressure Tim Moore and Phil Berger plus the Republican supermajority in both houses, it is doable. More members means more pressure on those two.

I hope to see you there!

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Good News For A Friday Afternoon

June 9, 2023 by 1 Comment

I come bearing good news on this Friday afternoon. That is if you hold the North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit. Both the states of Nevada and Minnesota now allow holders of the NC CHP legally to carry concealed in their states. Of course, if Nevadans and Minnesotans wish to carry in North Carolina, we will recognize that permit as well as the permit of any other state as we offer universal reciprocity.

At one time, Nevada had stopped offering reciprocity to North Carolinians. However, Grass Roots North Carolina worked with state level groups there providing information on the NC CHP and its standards which led to a re-evaluation by that state.

From the GRNC Alert:

We have some good news to announce, in that Minnesota and Nevada added North Carolina permit reciprocity. GRNC worked regularly for a multi-year period with the state gun rights organization in NV to help inform NV’s state attorney’s office on the rigor and standards involved in North Carolina’s permit process.

After thorough analysis, NV finally restored reciprocity for North Carolina’s Concealed Carry Handgun permit.

We can also tell you that we’re still working on Freedom to carry HB 189 and if you haven’t signed the petition please do so.

The relevant information on North Carolina permit reciprocity in these states is available here:

PERMIT TO CARRY RECIPROCITY

Minnesota

Under MN law, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) is required to publish a list of states which have handgun carry permit laws that are not similar to Minnesota’s permit-to-carry law.

Minnesota permit-to-carry law is M.S. 624.714. Subdivision 16 deals with “recognition of permits from other states.”

Out of State Permits Valid in Minnesota.

Reciprocity with North Carolina

Nevada gun laws apply to both in-state and out-of-state residents.

You are permitted to “open-carry” firearms, with certain limitations, whether you are an in-state or out-of-state resident.

If you are a non-Nevada resident, you can carry a concealed weapon only if you have a CCW from a reciprocal state.

Currently, Nevada’s reciprocal states for concealed carry of handguns.

Reciprocity with North Carolina


This brings to an exceptional 40 states in which lawful North Carolinians may exercise the fundamental right to carry concealed firearms. For a map of reciprocal states, go to: GRNC Reciprocity Map

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Become A Social Media Ambassador For GRNC

May 16, 2023 by

Do you live on social media? Do you believe in the Second Amendment and gun rights? Do you want to help the growth of gun rights in North Carolina?

Then Grass Roots North Carolina has the volunteer job for you!

From their alert:

‘SOCIAL MEDIA AMBASSADORS’ NEEDED
Many of you have asked how you can help, even from home and on an as-available basis. Well, our Facebook crew has a suggestion. We need “Social Media Ambassadors” to help extend GRNC’s reach on Facebook. All that is required is that from time-to-time social you will be asked via email to 1). invite people to follow the GRNC page and to 2). like, comment and share targeted posts. In terms of how many people we need, the more the merrier.

If you are interested in being a GRNC Social Media Ambassador, please reply with full contact into to DirectorOfDevelopment@GRNC.org using the subject “Social Media Ambassador.”

While the alert speaks only to Facebook, I would go further and suggest posting the gun rights message to every other social media platform in which you participate.

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“Swoopers”

May 12, 2023 by

I love memes. They can convey a ton of information in a humorous or sarcastic way.

I found this meme today on Reddit. The only change I’d make to it is to add Grass Roots North Carolina or your own state-level gun rights group that is unaffiliated with the NRA.

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Update On Permitless Concealed Carry In NC

May 3, 2023 by 1 Comment

The North Carolina House Judiciary 2 Committee held their hearing on HB 189 – NC Constitutional Carry Act today. The committee adopted a substitute which they often do and reported it favorably to the Rules Committee. The vote to advance the bill to Rules was 7 aye, 4 nay according to WGHP-TV Greensboro. The bill will be renamed “NC Permitless Carry”.

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to take up HB 189 tomorrow and a final vote is anticipated to come by Thursday, May 4th, which would meet the crossover deadline.

According to the WGHP report:

The bill was supported by gun rights advocacy groups, such as Grass Roots North Carolina and Gun Owners of America, represented by Andy Stevens, who said the bill would alleviate backlogs of some sheriffs who were slow to provide permits.

Paul Valone of Grass Roots North Carolina said the bill represented a “relatively modest bite at the apple.”

Among those speaking against the bill were the NC Council of Churches, NC Against Gun Violence, and the NC Sheriffs Association. The representative from the Sheriffs Association objected saying law enforcement would not know if the person they were approaching was legal to carry a concealed weapon. As with both the current law and the proposed law, anyone carrying concealed has the duty to inform if approached by law enforcement.

Grass Roots North Carolina also delivered over 1,500 signed petitions to Speaker Tim Moore’s office prior to the committee meeting. If you have not yet signed the petition, please do as that will increase the number that will be given to Sen. President Phil Berger.

Andy Stevens Photo

HB 189, in addition to allowing unlicensed carry, would reduce the permitted age to 18. It would also recognize training offered by US Concealed Carry Association. As I read Section 1.2 of the proposed law, the training requirement of the current law would be retained under permitless carry. The bill, however, makes no mention of providing proof of that training to law enforcement if questioned. It is reported that the retention of the training requirement was necessary to get permitless carry passed out of committee.

Another bill of relevance that passed out of the House Judiciary 2 Committee today was HB 691 – New Resident/Temporary Concealed Carry Permit. It would impact new North Carolina residents who have a current, unexpired carry permit from another state that is due to expire within 120 days of establishing residency. They would be granted a temporary permit so long as they had applied for a NC permit, paid the fee, had their fingerprints taken, and signed the mental health background check waiver. They would not be required to have taken a North Carolina training class before being granted the temporary permit. This permit expires when person gets their NCCHP or if the person does not provide proof of taking the North Carolina course within 120 days of getting the temporary permit.

HB 691 will go to the Rule Committee tomorrow along with HB 189.

UPDATE: You will note that the bill retains the training requirement. This so I understand came from the Speaker and was the compromise to have the bill move forward. It was either compromise to get something or wait another two years. It does negate the anti-gun lobby’s argument about “untrained” people being allowed to carry.

Additionally, the bill was not on the Rules Committee calendar when it was first published yesterday. However, checking the list as of this morning, both HB 189 and HB 691 are on their list of bills to be heard at 1:15pm today.

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Help Pass Permitless Concealed Carry In NC

April 28, 2023 by 4 Comments

North Carolina has and has had permitless open carry since 1922. That is when the North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Kerner said it was a constitutional violation to prohibit open carry. Now we are fighting to have what 27 other states have – unlicensed or permitless concealed carry.

Grass Roots North Carolina plans to deliver petitions demanding passage of permitless concealed carry to Speaker Tim Moore on Tuesday. Thursday, May 4th, is the last day for a bill to pass the House in order qualify for the crossover deadline. If the House does not pass HB 189 by then, permitless carry will be dead for the remainder of the next two years in the General Assembly.

GRNC also has an alert up with pre-written language with which to contact your State Representative. You can find it here.

I have embedded the petition below which has a QR code to lead you to where you will need to sign it. Frankly, I don’t think it matters if you live in North Carolina or not, we need numbers.

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Pistol Purchase Permit Repeal Passes NC House

March 16, 2023 by

The North Carolina House of Representatives passed the omnibus SB41 yesterday by a vote of 70 aye, 44 nay, and 6 excused absences. Four of the excused were Republicans. The enrolled bill now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. It is anticipated that Cooper will veto the bill in keeping with the wishes of his anti-gun masters. To override, all Republicans in the Senate must vote for the override and all House Republicans plus one House Democrat. An absent Democrat or two on the day of the override vote will work as well.

The bill, as noted earlier, repeals the Jim Crow-inspired pistol purchase permit, allows churches with attached private schools to allow carry when students are not present, and launches a statewide safe storage initiative for firearms that cannot advocate for gun control.

Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, issued this statement on the passage of the bill:

“In passing Senate Bill 41, today was a great victory for the Second Amendment. GRNC wishes to thank Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, as well as sponsors and “main movers” of the bill including Sens. Danny Britt; Warren Daniel; and Jim Perry; and Reps. Destin Hall; Jay Adams; Hugh Blackwell; Allen Chesser; Kyle Hall; Bobby Hanig; Kelly Hastings; Neal Jackson; Keith Kidwell; Jeff, McNeely; Ben Moss; Mark Pless; Jason Saine; Carson Smith; plus Democrats who stood courageously: Marvin Lucas, Michael Wray, and Shelly Willingham, and finally the many others whose co-sponsorship and votes who made the victory possible. GRNC particularly thanks our members and supporters, whose thousands of emails and phone calls made this victory inevitable. We are confident that we will over-ride the inevitable veto by anti-freedom Governor Roy Cooper. Very soon, we will release more details of the vicious floor fight waged by Democrats to stop the bill, and the well-managed efforts Republican leadership used to stop it.”

There has been no whiny response as of yet from Everytown, Moms Demand Action, Giffords, NCGV, or the rest of the gun control industry. They are still reveling in the virtually meaningless executive actions by President Biden and Gov. Roy Cooper.

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Reminders To Politicians

January 2, 2023 by 4 Comments

Politicians need reminders on who “brung them to the dance” lest they start believing they did it all on their own. A sparkling personality and a impressive résumé can only take you so far. Effective outside help should always be appreciated.

Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, realizes this. He just issued two open letters: one to Speaker Tim Moore of the NC House and one to Sen. Phil Berger, President Pro Tem of the NC Senate. The only difference in the letters is that the Republicans received a supermajority in the State Senate while falling one short in the House.

The letters (see an example below) remind Moore and Berger of both the efforts and the results from the independent expenditures made by the GRNC-PVF and the Judicial Fairness Project. 34 races were targeted and 27 wins recorded or nearly an 80% win rate.

They are then told of the legislative priorities for GRNC in the next session. These include permitless carry, getting rid of the pistol purchase permit, eliminating the “church carry loophole”, and protecting shooting on private property. Vetoes by Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) negated the wins in the last session which sought to eliminate the pistol purchase permit and allowing churches with schools to permit carry during non-school hours. Neither veto was overridden. With the supermajority in the Senate and the near supermajority in the House, chances are that a veto could be overridden this time. The letter concludes by saying Valone is confident that the Republicans will advance the rights of Second Amendment supporters.

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Followup On East Henderson Youth Raffle

September 13, 2022 by

This is a follow-up on the FN-15 patrol rifle raffle being held by the East Henderson Youth Football and Cheer League. The “concern” offered by gun prohibitionists appears to have back-fired on them. East Henderson YFCL has now received nationwide support for their raffle and has raised much more than anticipated.

From Fox News:

“We are so grateful for the blessings that God has provided us through this ridiculous backlash,” the mother said. “We have far surpassed our goals, and now have the ability to pass those blessings on to others in need. We have read every message, transaction note and email that has come our way. The supportive messages are coming from both retired and active military personnel, law enforcement officers, firefighters, fellow youth organization leaders, teachers, lawyers, entrepreneurs and grandparents trying to save our backwards society.”

“They are thanking us for standing our ground, for volunteering our time to support our future, for loving these children, for praying over them; for teaching them to have a backbone, to stand up for what they believe in, to protect our constitutional rights and to not back down to bullying. Everyone wants to talk about bullying, but no one wants to stand up against them. When someone finally does stand up, they are the ones who are punished, not the bully. We’ve all had enough,” the mother continued.

“The truly validating thing about this entire experience is that the Second Amendment community is full of heart, compassion, safety, protection, love, honor and respect. The opposition has been disrespectful, hateful, intolerant, uninformed and often downright disgusting. Our young children do not conduct themselves in the manner that these adults have been behaving,” she added.

One of the groups that helping bring awareness to this raffle is Grass Roots North Carolina. Not only did they send out an alert to the 125,000 on their email list, their alert was published in Ammoland. It should be noted that this raffle is still open. I bought my $20 worth of tickets and would urge you to help as well.

From GRNC:

Standing for liberty can have some rewarding results. We at Grass Roots North Carolina tend to take exception to the bullies of the liberticidal left.  That’s why we decided to help out the East Henderson Youth Football and Cheerleading League (EHYFCL) in East Flat Rock, North Carolina, that which was raffling off a perfectly legal product.

Said an organization representative: “The use of the field, stadium, and facilities are not free, the lost uniforms, mouthpieces, chin straps, ear pads, bows, and socks are not free … Equipment is not free, the insurance is not free, and all the other fees the league must pay are not imaginary.”

Bless their hearts, the ‘woke’ mob leftists lost their minds over the fact that it was a –Gasp!– FN 15 Patrol Carbine M-LOK 16″, an ArmaLite 15-style rifle with a suggested retail price of $1,299.  That was just too much for the tyrannical ten percent.

Had they kept quiet about an inanimate object that only has two enemies, dust, and oxidation.  The group would have sold a few tickets, and that would have been it.

But like all the other anti-liberty authoritarian leftists down through history, they just couldn’t leave well enough alone.  Their collectivist urge to control others was just too strong, and they just had to start complaining.  

Leftist authoritarians can’t deal with the fact that people who possess what is rightfully called the modern-day musket tend to be independently minded defenders of liberty – liberals in the truest sense of the word.

Thanks to Ammoland.com, we heard of this and we acted to help them out by publicizing their raffle, causing it to go viral.

So, we find it very satisfying that tickets are selling like preverbal standard capacity hotcakes and a lot of liberty grabber lobbyists lost what is left of their minds over this.  We would like to thank them for helping out.   After all, it is a team effort, the pro-freedom community acting normally, while leftists were acting like.. leftists..

I have heard rumors locally that the gun prohibitionists that were stymied in their efforts to shut down this raffle have now turned their attention to the Henderson County Public Schools Board. As I understand it, they are trying to lobby the school board to deny this league and these kids the use of school facilities such as athletic fields as retribution.

You can let the school board know that you support these kids and the East Henderson Youth Football and Cheer League by contacting them at this link. I would mention that denying the league the use of the facilities amounts to a denial of free speech and is a violation of civil rights under the color of law which could lead to a Federal lawsuit. Just a suggestion.

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Protest Against Tillis In Raleigh Starts At 10am Friday

June 24, 2022 by 1 Comment

This is just a reminder. Grass Roots North Carolina will be holding a protest outside the office of Sen. Thom Tillis (D-NC) tomorrow. It starts at 10am and will feature the hero of the Sutherland Springs Stephen Willeford.

If you can be there, be there. Information below is from GRNC

Gun Group to Picket Tillis Office 

Grass Roots NC will demonstrate against 

Tillis role in federal gun control

[Raleigh] On Friday, June 24 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC) will be picketing Sen. “Traitor Thom” Tillis at his district office at 310 New Bern Ave., Raleigh, NC, 27601. The focus will be Tillis’ participation in federal gun control. Additional details are available at GRNC.org. 

“Traitor Thom” is also a coward

To avoid the “redress of grievances” with his constituents guaranteed by the First Amendment, a Tillis staff member says they will close the office on Friday, demonstrating clearly that Tillis doesn’t want to hear from his constituents. Accordingly, Tillis is not only a traitor to the gun voters who gave him his narrow victory in the 2020 elections, but also a coward afraid to face his constituents.

Sutherland Springs hero

GRNC is bringing in Stephen Willeford, the hero who stopped the mass killing at First Baptist Church in Southerland Springs, TX by shooting and wounding the perpetrator with an AR-15 and then chasing the perpetrator’s motor vehicle to prevent him from committing further killings. Willeford will address the demonstration because his experience illustrates that only armed deterrence and intervention will stop mass killers.

Capitulation, not compromise

Democrats exploit mass killings to further their pre-ordained agenda to disarm the American public. The “solutions” they impose have no impact on mass murder.

What Republicans claim is a “compromise” negotiated by Tillis, John Cornyn (R-TX) and eight other Republicans is not a “compromise” at all because Second Amendment supporters gain nothing. In truth, it is capitulation, virtually guaranteeing that Democrats will soon demand more gun control.

GRNC position on gun control measures

GRNC opposes all measures in the Senate gun control package being voted on today, including:


♦ “Red flag” gun confiscation orders: Gun confiscation orders (GCOs) are issued in “ex parte” hearings in which the accused is not only denied the ability to defend himself in court but might not even know the order has been issued until law enforcement officers show up to confiscate his guns. In 2018, 61-year-old Gary Willis was shot by police after responding to banging on his door at 5:17 AM with a gun in hand. At least one-third of such orders are issued spuriously upon complaints by vengeful ex-spouses and other complainants with grievances. Ironically, if the person is truly dangerous, GCOs leave him at large and able to commit violence with other weapons.


♦So-called “boyfriend loophole”: This measure further expands the list of people prohibited from owning firearms after committing only misdemeanors rather than felonies. Although Republicans will argue the prohibition is only for five years, it creates another “loophole” which Democrats will eventually exploit to incrementally restrict private gun ownership.


♦Age restrictions and juvenile record provisions: Under these measures, an urban 20-year-old single mother living amidst rioting and looting would have a waiting period to obtain a firearm for self-protection. It represents an unconstitutional infringement on the constitutional rights of people old enough to drive, vote, and die in the service of their country.

For more information: www.GRNC.org